I invited friends and family to give me fun and interesting weekly activities for my 50th year. This blog documents the results and is not affiliated with the involuntary two week psychiatric hold of the same name, though maybe it should be.

Given the two options, and considering I STILL haven’t taken an art class I decided on option two: Take a day trip to someplace I hadn’t been! That would be great! It didn’t take me very long to figure out where I’d go and when! It’d be the first weekend of Winter Break! I’d drive the Leaf and give it a good real world test of speed and range. I’d go and take some interesting pictures…

The Thursday before Winter Break I felt a raw tickle in the back of my throat that I couldn’t get rid of. By Friday I managed to drag myself to work and through the day. I was sick for the first three full days of Break, then recovering after that, as well as getting Holiday stuff done.

The week after that started with Christmas ended with a sore back and had another illness in the middle. Suffice to say the day trip didn’t get done in the allotted week or the next.

My plan for such eventualities (which I didn’t expect to have quite so many of quite so soon) is not to discard but to keep them in a holding pattern until such a time that I can get them done. As yet that opportunity has yet to avail itself.

Shortly before I turned 50 I gave cards to many of my friends and family with a simple idea: Give me something interesting to do! The instructions along with the card asked that they write down a reasonably inexpensive idea or two for me to do that I could accomplish within one week. Then, once a week, every week for my 50th year I would choose a random card, do the activity described within, and report back to them about my experience.

Reactions to this idea ranged from “what a neat idea,” to “MUAHAHAHAHA!” so I’m pretty sure I’m in for an interesting year! I don’t have all the cards back (yet), but I have enough to get started and keep going for the next two months. I even have a few yet to pass out to people.

So here’s how it’s going to work: I’ll choose a card on Sunday of each week, open it and see what there is to do. Over the course of the week I will either do it or research how or where to do it. On Saturday I will write up my experience on this blog as well as a card back to who suggested it. Then Sunday a new card and a new activity for the week!